Economist.com Cities Guide: Tokyo Briefing - February 2006

News this month

Royal bun in the oven

Tokyo is abuzz with news that Princess Kiko is pregnant. On February 7th palace officials announced that the 39-year-old princess, wife of Prince Akishino, Emperor Akihito’s second son, is due to give birth in September or October. This baby would come 11 years after her last one; the royal couple has two daughters, but a boy would be third in line to the throne.

A 1947 law, together with centuries of tradition, forbids a female's succession to the throne. The emperor's heir, 45-year-old Crown Prince Naruhito, has one daughter with his wife Masako. In January 2005 Junichiro Koizumi, Japan's prime minister, appointed a panel to look into allowing an eldest-born child to succeed to the throne, regardless of sex. He had been planning to introduce a new law in March. But the possibility of a male heir (the first since 1965) has altered matters, and the bill looks set to be scrapped. “Princess Kiko's pregnancy has changed things greatly,” explained a spokesman for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Hidden harvest

A converted bank vault deep beneath the heart of Tokyo’s financial district has been revealed as the unlikely site of a big agricultural breakthrough. In January Pasona, the company that owns the vault, announced that farmers had used it to cultivate the world’s first crop of hydroponic rice, grown without natural light, fresh air or soil. The Koshihikari rice yield from the high-tech, five-square-metre cavern was small, at just 60 kilos, but it was a triumph after almost two years' worth of trial and error.

Pasona, which has worked on hydroponic crops since 2004, has had plenty of success with its tomatoes, lettuces and basil. But the ability to grow hydroponic rice had eluded technicians until the company turned to Yoshihiko Morita, a veteran rice farmer in Kyoto, for help. Mr Morita's strategy of simulating wind and rain in the vault worked perfectly. The company is now looking for ways to expand the technique on a commercial scale. If Pasona is successful, Japanese farmers could be immune to the effects of extreme weather patterns and produce four harvests a year instead of one.

Veteran villainy

Statistics from the National Police Agency in Tokyo released in January showed a disturbing trend: while juvenile delinquency is waning, crimes committed by the elderly are on the rise. Since 1990, the number of suspects aged over 65 involved in crimes such as theft, arson and murder has soared four-fold. People from that age group now account for 10% of all arrests.

Sociologists attribute the problem to a rising number of pensioners, who now make up about one-fifth of Japan’s population. Many of them fall into relative poverty, and resort to shoplifting and pick-pocketing to supplement their meagre income. Police expect this trend to continue as the number of pensioners increases. Half a century ago, the proportion of the population aged over 65 stood at around 5%; it is forecast to reach almost 30% by 2025. The effects are already being felt in Japan's prisons, many of which have installed wheelchair-friendly ramps, and handrails in the bathrooms.

Under the spell

Hirohito Shibuya, a 57-year-old fortune teller from Tokyo's suburbs, has captivated Japan's media. In January police arrested him for allegedly threatening to turn a woman into mincemeat unless she agreed to live with him. It then turned out that Mr Shibuya had an 11-strong harem, the members of which spent their time earning money while he stayed at home doing light housework. Even more extraordinary, Mr Shibuya was at one time married to at least ten of the women held in his thrall. Records from the local ward office showed that on eight occasions Mr Shibuya avoided anti-polygamy laws by divorcing one woman and marrying another on the same day.

It remains unclear how Mr Shibuya kept his many ex-wives under his roof. Police investigators said they found a series of books on group hypnosis in his house, but Mr Shibuya attributes his success to a love charm that came to him in a dream.

Very superstitious

For 17-year-olds across Japan, January 21st marked the start of the nail-biting university entrance-exam season. Parents from Hokkaido to Kyushu take the exam seriously, but mothers in Tokyo this year have worked themselves into a superstitious tizzy. To give their children an edge, Tokyo parents have been scouring temples, shrines and convenience stores for anything that might confer some tiny advantage.

The frenzy is strongest around Yushima Tenjin, the shrine closest to the campus of Tokyo University, which remains the most desirable school in the country. Talismanic key-rings are being sold for about $50, while other prayer paraphernalia can be snapped up for rather less. Newly popular products are sweets or other foods with names that suggest something lucky. Thus sales of Kit-Kat chocolate bars, which in Japanese sound like “certain victory”, are very strong, as are sales of katsu pork cutlets, which sound like the word for “win”.

Catch if you can

February 2006

Omotesando Hills

From February 11th 2006

Take a coveted commercial location in Tokyo, add Tadao Ando, one of Japan's most talented architects, and what do you get? A building that is now dubbed “Omotesando Hills”. From the outside, the two-storey structure, covered in 250 square metres of glass, offers no hint of what lies within. But step inside and you find yourself in a long, narrow building, with sloping walkways and more than 90 spanking new shops and restaurants. On the upper floors are 38 smart flats.

Does Minoru Mori, the developer behind Roppongi Hills, have another hit on his hands? Only time will tell. But the building has been hailed as a triumph for Mr Ando, who until now has worked mainly in Osaka. Every spring brings fashionable shoppers to the tree-lined boulevard of Omotesando. This year, they will have a new attraction to focus on.

Omotesando Hills, Jingumae 4-12-10, Shibuya-Ku. Tel: +81 (03) 3497-0310 (management office). Chiyoda, Ginza or Hanzomon line to Omotesando station. Open daily. See also the building's official website.

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